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Just what you need

A baby monitor was something I hadn't really thought about when I was pregnant, several months into my pregnancy I was visiting a friend, and I looked at their baby monitor, it really showed that I hadn't done my research as I was not aware of all the things they could do!

After much deliberation I decided to opt for the Angel Care AC201.

It has a pad which you place under the mattress which detects the baby's slightest movement (even breathing) and if nothing is detected for 20 seconds, an alarm sounds.

It comes in three parts, the pad which you place under the mattress, the monitor which you plug in your babies room and then the parent part which you can move around the house and place in which ever room you wish.

After a few months, there was the odd occasion where we forgot to take the parent part with, the great thing was that the alarm is loud enough to wake you if you are in a separate room.

It is battery operated (2 x AA which are not included) however there is a mains adapter too which we mainly used. Another good point is that if there is every a power cut, it will automatically switch to using the batteries (if there are some in of course) so there is no need to worry about that.

Setting it up was really it set up, we placed the mat on a piece of wood under the mattress, fed the wire through the slats on the base and around the back (so there was no way of Lauren finding it), plug the monitor into the wall and then off you go.

It cost me around £50 and I think the RRP is about £60

We only had one incident when Lauren first moved into her cot bed where she had wriggled right down to the bottom of the bed and lay horizontally so the monitor could not pick her up. My heart nearly stopped when the alarm sounded, but luckily she was still sound asleep. We used this for nearly two years (even when we turned the cot bed into a bed) as I was still paranoid and this was the only incident we had.

I think this is an excellent buy and a must have for that extra piece of mind.

To be honest, I would use it until she was 18 if I could but my other half thinks that is a bit obsessive!

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A must buy for new parents!

I would definitely recommend the angelcare sound and movement monitor! I used it with my son and will definitely be using it again when our next baby arrives in a few weeks.

The sound quality is brilliant, could very clearly hear my son. There is also a setting so that you don't have to listen to the static, the sound just activates when your baby actually makes noise (although personally I didn't use this setting as the static reassured me that the monitor was working). The display on the parent unit is great and shows you the temperature of the baby's room, you can also set a minimum and maximum temperature that you are happy with and an alarm will then alert you if the baby's room is too hot or cold.

The sensor pad that monitors movement is absolutely brilliant, we used it until my son was 14 months old (he then went into a bed otherwise would have continued to use it) and we only had 1 false alarm and that was because, at a few weeks old, my son had managed to wriggle his way right to the top of the cot, lying horizontally, so could not be detected by the sensor pad. The pad detects the slightest movement and an alarm activates if your baby has not moved/taken a breath for 20 seconds. You can change the sensitivity of the pad. It definitely helped me get some sleep, although I still checked on my son a lot I know I would have been 10 times worse without the pad! There is a setting where the parent unit will beep when movement is detected, this however was not a setting I felt a need for.

The "halo ring" on top of the baby unit lights up and acts as a good nightlight, emitting a blue glow. Batteries can be added to the baby unit but these seem to be for back up reasons only, at times of a power failure. I tried using just batteries instead of the plug socket when my son first went into a bed (I didn't like that he had access to the cables) but the batteries (Duracell) ran out before morning and I was awoken by the "low battery" alarm, I tried again the next night with fresh batteries and got the same result.

Our son slept in our room for the first 10 months, so during this time we just used the sensor pad and temperature monitoring settings, just using the sound setting while we were in the living room in the evenings.

It does say in the instruction booklet that for the sensor pad to work you need to cover the base of the cot with a sheet of mdf, this was a slight hassle to sort out, especially as we were not aware of this need until we were actually setting the monitor up for the first time! I'm not sure if the sensor pad would still work as well if you do not follow this instruction, I've never tried it without the wood in the cot.

The Anglecare sound and movement monitor is a "must buy" in my opinion.

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Well worth the investment for peace of mind

In a sentence- I cannot recommend this product highly enough! We purchased this monitor when I was pregnant with my daughter and although their are many monitors you can get for less than half the price- this is worth spending the money on.It comes with a parent unit that you just plug into any plug socket OR run on batteries (being sure that they don't run out), a child sound unit that again can just be plugged in and the most important component the movement monitor which is a flat pad (about the size of a piece of A4 paper) that goes under babies mattress. It is easy to assemble (I could do it) and the settings are also easy to understand. You can choose for the monitor to pick up sound, movement or both (we always used both) and can also set the machine so an alarm sounds if it doesn't dtect movement or that it clicks every time it does hear movement AND the alarm sounds. We chose the second setting and although other people would ask how we could bear the click/beep every second- within literally a couple of hours my partner and I had tuned into it and found it quite soothing- it was the sound that our daughter was OK.I have heard of people having false alarms with this (when the alram sound but baby is fine). This only happened to us once, she never rolled off the sensor pad or anything. The only other time the alarm sounded is when one of us would get her out of her cot and forget to turn it off.This gave us such peace of mind in the early days (most new parents spend ALOT of time checking breathing!) and made it possible for us to move our daughter into her own room from an early age.The only very slight downside is that it doesn't work on a slatted mattress base- so we had to cut a piece of plywood to fit over the slatted base on her cot. Not a massive problem- but is worth bearing in mind.

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worth its weight in gold for any nervous parent

Fantastic for all first time parents to easy the worry. Lets face it as a new parent the chances of catching some much needed zzzzzzz can be few and far between and in those first few months it can be difficult to rest easy with the worry of something bad happening. Having had a close friend who tragically lost her son to cot death at 3 months old, i was very anxious about it myself. A friend recommend this to me as it has a sensor pad which you put under the baby and if it doesn't sense movement or sound in 30 seconds it sounds an alarm.

Now a few times the alarm did sound for no apparent reason but i would rather be woken up with a few false alarms than sleep though a real problem so this didn't bother me in the slightest. It also works as a normal baby monitor that can be taken with you from room to room battery operated or plugged into a socket for that extra piece of mind. The sensor pad can also be adjusted to higher or lower sensitivity, even the low sensitivity works amazingly well, so much so that i had the pad under the cot mattress and could lay the moses basket on top of the cot mattress and it would still work just as well (because sometimes when they fall asleep its just not worth moving them for risk of waking them up) so this was great as it meant i didn't have to move the pad and all the wires.

There is a new model now available but this one worked fab for me and i will use it again when my new baby is born in jan, i just don't see the point in splashing out another £80. This old model can also be picked up on e-bay for as little as £20 so its an absolute bargain and worth its weight in gold for any nervous parent. Its the one thing i wouldn't bring the baby home until i owned.

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AngelCare Monitor

When it comes to essential baby items a monitor has to be fairly top of the list. We took a while to choose one, reading all about them and deciding which would be best for us. We finally settled upon the Angel Care baby monitor as I liked the look of it, had heard and read good things about it and was recommended it by my next door neighbour.

We bought ours at Mothercare and it cost us £69.99. The one was chose was the Angelcare Baby Movement and Sound Monitor. The monitor comes in two parts. There is the nursery unit which is the part that obviously, stays in the nursery. This is what will pick up the sounds that the baby makes. This section somewhat in the shape of a angel, hence the name and has a nightlight in the shape of a halo around the top of the monitor. The nightlight is blue and has quite a glow to it. It is not amazingly bright but to be honest you don't really want a really bright night light, you just want a bit of a glow in order to see your way into the nursery if you need to go in there. It has an easy on/off switch on the side that moves up and down when you want to switch it on/off.

The second part is portable and called the parent unit and this is what enables you to hear the baby if they make a noise. The parent unit also comes with a base/cradle in which you can rest it if you have a permanent home for it, for example we plug ours in in our bedroom so have the cradle here but like being able to take it around the house with us when baby is asleep so the portable function is really good in my opinion. The reception is quite good on this monitor. THe monitor will go off when my baby coughs and of course when she cries but does not pick up every little sigh which is not what you want. The reach of the monitor is 100 metres indoors and 250 metres outdoors and I have not experienced a time when this has not worked in these distances.

The parent unit has a LCD colour screen that shows all the functions of this monitor on it. For example the temperature in the room is shown in big numbers on the monitor. I liked this as it took away the need to buy a thermometer and it monitors the temperature which is very important in a baby's early months. You can set the temperature perameteres so if it gets too hot or too cold in the room the monitor will continue to beep until you turn it off, enabling you to change or control the temperature in the room. THere is also a noise lever readout on the screen which of course gets larger if the baby is making a lot of room. I suppose this is good if you are hard of hearing and can look at the monitor instead of hearing it.

One of the reasons we bought this monitor is that it came with a Sensor pad that you put in the cot under the baby's bedding and it will detect even the slightest movements of your baby. If there is no movement for 20 seconds an alarm will sound. Well, it sounded good to begin with but when it came to actually using it it became somewhat of a pain. My baby girl can sometimes be very still when she sleeps and does not move for hours at a time, let alone 20 seconds so the alarm would sound all the time and after 1 night, we turned it off, never to use it again. I suppose if you are very nervous and need to check on your baby all the time then this part of the monitor is something you will appreciate but for me it was just too annoying and not worth using. Also the Sensor pad is quite hard and even though it was under the mattress I can imagine it's a bit like the princess and the pea, annoying and uncomfortable.

Like I've said above the monitor is rechargeable but will also take 4 AAA batteries which are included. All in all, I would recommend this monitor as I found it works really well, 8 months on.

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gives me peace of mind when baby is asleep in his own room

My sister received the Angelcare Monitor as a gift from her workplace when she left to have her little boy. She found she didn't use it very much as she lived in a small flat and slept in the same room as baby. My sister kindly gave me the Monitor when I fell pregnant with my first little boy and used it ALL the time. I hated leaving him upstairs in his room asleep when I went downstairs but I had great peace of mind using the Angelcare Monitor. I could here EVERYTHING from his room. I didn't use the sensor pad that you place under the mattress - I was happy enough with the Monitor.

I would however say that there can sometimes be some frequency noise coming through but nothing that made me want to switch it off.

I LOVED the Angelcare Monitor as it really gave me peace of mind when my boy was asleep in his bed. I now have another little boy and use it with him too. I would recommend to any parent.

Also wanted to add that the little cloud shape that stays in the babies room is adorable and fits in perfectly!

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wish i had this 10 years ago with my first

I think the angel care is the best baby product ive every paid for.There is a pad which sits under baby mattress in there cot and picks up any movement and if there no movement after 20 seconds a alarm sounds. This product means i can now get some sleep at night without worrying .I love the fact that on the base unit you can have the tick set on so that every movement baby make it make a low tick sound its lovely waking up and hearing the gentle ticking sound.You can switch this off if you did not want to hear.I found the angel care very easy to set up and like the fact if there is a power cut the battery pack kicks in so you know baby will always be safe.The only down side i found was the power wire could have done with being abit longer to reach power points.

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Definitely recommended for all parents worried about their babies stopping breathing

We have had two versions of this monitor now. The first one we bought when my first daughter was born and used the monitor for both her and my second daughter. Then we bought the newer version for when my son was born as the aerial on the baby unit had snapped on our original monitor in a house move.

This monitor comes with parent unit, baby unit and movement pad sensor. It is really easy to use and install. The movement sensor pad goes underneath the mattress of the cot or cot bed and the wire goes out underneath the cot. This wire is then plugged into the baby unit. The sensor pad detects any slight movement of the baby, including gentle breathing, and if no movement is felt for 20 seconds an alarm sounds. This alarm is very reassuring for new parents worried about their babies stopping breathing for a few seconds.

One issue we had with the sensor pad was that we put the pad at one end of the cot, but when the baby got bigger and moved about a bit, the pad would set off the alarm when the baby moved to the other end of the cot. Therefore I would recommend putting the pad in the middle of the cot as it can then sense the baby wherever it is in the cot.

The monitor has two different settings, one with the sensor pad and one for just sound only. Once our children have gotten older, we have removed the sensor pad and just used the sound only part of the monitor. The only problem we have found with the monitor is that sometimes you can get some interference from the parent unit, but there are two channels to choose from. Switching channels does seem to reduce the interference noise slightly.

Both the baby unit and the parent unit can be operated via mains power or via batteries. So if you are worried about a power cut, then simply put some batteries in both units and they will still work during power cuts.

There is also the option to make the pad more or less sensitive and there are 5 sensitivity settings on the baby unit.

I would definitely recommend this baby monitor for all new parents who are worried about leaving their baby alone in their own room and who are worried about the baby stopping breathing. This monitor gives you the peace of mind that if anything should happen to your baby, the alarm will sound and give you a warning that something has happened.

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A must have for parents and babies - I highly recommend it!

I inherited this baby monitor from my brother. They have used it for their two children and didn't have any problems so I thought I'd give it a shot!

One of the main features of this device that really appealed to me as a new mum was the movement sensor pad that sits underneath your baby's cot mattress - one less thing to worry about on a night!

Very easy to assemble, you simply place the movement sensor pad under your cot mattress, thread the wire under the mattress and through the cot bars and this then plugs into your main monitor base. Next, you insert the wire for the plug into the other hole on the mains monitor base.

The second part of the Angelcare product is the speaker and this is what you keep next to you wherever you roam around your home so you can rest assured your little bundle of joy is sleeping soundly.

The speaker either works on batteries alone or plugs into your wall. The light on the speaker unit will turn from green to an orange colour to alert you to the batteries running low. The volume control on the speaker unit is useful (even on the lowest setting you can still clearly hear if your baby starts crying).

One other point to remember is on both the main base unit and speaker are two settings; 'A' and 'B'. I don't believe there to be much difference between these settings - just remember that whatever you set the main monitor base to, that you also set the speaker to the same (or you'll just end up with crackle on the speaker unit).

The other setting the base unit has is to either set it to sound only or sound and movement.

My little man is now 6 ½ months old. This device has been a god send. I have only one minor niggle with it.

If you plug the speaker into the wall and this is next to a phone charger, it does seem to receive interference (buzzing). Even turning the speaker down to the lowest volume does not get rid of the buzzing noise - this has proved a little annoying when trying to sleep on an evening if you're like me and wake at the sound of pin dropping on the floor!

Thinking back I think I used the movement sensor pad for the first two to three months with Jack. Once your baby starts to move around the cot and off of the movement pad area the alarm will sound until you turn it off. Now, obviously this is one of the main features that appealed to me in the first place, however once the alarm is going off again and again due to your baby wriggling around in the cot you start to think that perhaps you'll just use the sound only option so you're not getting up and down in the night, moving the baby back down the cot - and also, you don't want it to wake them up with the alarm going off all the time!

This product looks to be quite expensive to buy from new and I've no qualms with thinking it is definitely worth every penny, however if I hadn't inherited this unit from family I think I would have looked to purchase it from somewhere like eBay but that's really up to you whether you mind buying second hand or not.

A fantastic bit of kit and I would highly recommend it.

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An excellent monitor for total peace of mind

When our baby was born, we were given a standard monitor which we were very happy with. It wasn't until a friend's baby had a problem breathing and needed to be resuscitated (baby now 100% fine), that I wanted to get one of these, just to be on the safe side.

The monitor was very easy to set up and install and we regularly take it with us when we go on holiday, so it's also very portable. The only thing you may need to change is the sensitivity of the pad - one house we have stayed in had very creaky floorboards so read movement even when we'd take our baby out of the cot, so we had to make it less sensitive to compensate (very eay to do, just a dial on the back).

The nightlight is just bright enough in our baby's room to enable us to check on him, without being so bright that it would wake him up, but we tend to turn it off when we go to bed anyway.

The room thermometer is a very useful and accurate - it gives the same read out as a digital room thermometer we had before we bought this system.

The audio quality is good - you really can hear every noise that your baby makes, but if that's too much for you, you can set it up so that it is only activated whn your baby makes a loud noise or cries.

Overall, I'd say this is a great piece of kit if you're at all worried about your baby's breathing and has certainly helped me sleep well.

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Buy a cheaper sound moniter

We bought the anglecare baby monitor because I was paronoid about SIDS. I now regret buying it as after speaking to SIDS UK they told me that the pad would not work as all cot death babies die instantly and can not be resusitated. I do feel these monitors give parents a sence that they can save there baby if it was to happen, SIDS told me to remove the pad!!!!!!! We only kept using the pad on the advise of the hospital due to a totally unrealated breathing issue our baby had, but had we not had this the hospital would have lent us one for that.

The monitor itself is very expensive, it has a very bright night light that keeps the baby awake, also the parents unit is terrible for interference. We had it on the hall floor outside the nursey door, the moment the door was opened this high pitched squeal came from it that both hurt your ears and woke the baby, now we keep the charger part downstaires, you also need to keep the pad and the nursery unit a certain distance apart as this causes interferience. The beeping that lets you know all is fine is terrible, so you need to turn that off. I don't think the room temp thing works to well, it always said the nursery was alot hotter than it was and if you have it to near the window, it tells you the temp of around the window and not the room. All in all, it works as a basic sound monitor well, but then so do the cheaper ones, I would buy it if you want a basic sound monitor, but speak to SIDS before spending out on a pad that is not needed.

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Monitors movement and alams after 20 seconds if non detected for complete peace of mind

I have the monitor that comes with the sensor mat so you can monitor movement so evidence of it on the parent unit. I'm a second time mum and you never get over that slightly panicky feeling that something might happen while you sleep, so I decided to buy the best safety monitor I could.

You can choose to monitor sound only on this unit and set it up so that it only activates if noise reaches a certain level, useful for older children where you don't want to use the mat as well. The parent unit that I have displays room temperature - a feature that you would not think would come in so handy. Setup can be a bit difficult to get to grips with, but setup bare minimum to start with to get going and fiddle with it when you have more time.

The parent unit uses rechargeable batteries which are supplied, so it is very mobile to use. The nursery unit has a nightlight and the usual flashing lights which offer comfort at a glance it walking by the nursery. You do have to keep the parent and nursery unit away from each other or you will get feedback, but if you are using the monitor in a moses basket in your room just use the nursery unit it still alarms if there is no movement detected. I have had no false alarms with this unit, unlike the other brand I owned.

I love this monitor - this isn't said lightly. I have tried another well known brand that is billed as the best and had two units suffer complete unit failure within a two year period.

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A good system, but has the postential to make already worried parents into nervous wrecks.

As a first time mummy you naturally become a paranoid nervous wreck. One of my greatest fears was that something would happen in the night and that I would wake to find that my baby had stopped breathing. When looking at the monitors on the market I was instantly drawn to the Angelcare system because of its sensor pad. The idea is that the pad is placed under the child's mattress in either a cot or a mosses basket. You have to ensure that the pad is resting on a completely flat surface and therefore have to place a piece of chipboard cut to size (or something similar) underneath the pad or else it will activate the alarm. The pad then senses the child's breathing - if these breathing 'movements' cease the alarm is activated after 20 seconds.

I didn't find it the easiest piece of equipment to set up. It doesn't come with the most detailed of instructions and there are only five buttons on the parent's control through which to navigate the menu and choose your settings. Once it was up and running however it was very effective. We encountered some difficulties with the channel through which we received the sound feed, because of our Sky Gnome was working on the same frequency. However one the Gnome was unplugged it worked just fine - it is however worth bearing in mind that it does not have its own unique preset channel.

The sound from the monitor is very clear and picks up even the quietest noises. The temperature display on the monitor is also very useful. An alarm also sounds if the two monitors lose the signal connection with each other, which also gives you extra piece of mind.

It was a while before we used the senor pad, because baby was in our room for the first few months and the Angelcare system does not allow the two monitors to be too close to each other as it causes horrendous feedback.

Like all new mums, I would wake in the night to check baby was breathing, but became more relaxed as the months went by. However when we moved baby into the nursery and started to use the sensor I became a nervous wreck all over again. After a few false alarms (boy is the alarm loud!) I was left quite shaken and found my self staying awake listening to the ticks that represent your baby's movements. A few months on I don't feel quite so nervous and I like the piece of mind that the system brings when your child is not sleeping where you can see them. Yes, the false alarms were frightening, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was us setting up the sensor incorrectly in the early days. We don't have anymore false alarms, but we know the system does work as we have lifted baby out of bed a few times without turning it off have set off the alarm.

Ultimately, I think we could have bought a monitor without the sensor pad and been perfectly happy, after all it is natural to worry and it does become less stressful over time. That said, the extra piece of mind can't hurt and who knows whether you will ever be unlucky enough to need it.

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Puts your mind at ease

I bought this before the birth of my first child mainly because I didn't think I would sleep as I'd be continuously checking their breathing. It has been brilliant.

Set-up is simple, you place the sensor mat under the mattress (if the cot has a slatted base you will need to put a piece of ply wood under there as well) you then trail the wire under the cot and simply plug it into the base unit. You can then use the base unit with batteries or the mains adaptor which is supplied. The parent unit has the same option, batteries (handy for moving around the house) or mains. Also, if you are using the batteries but plug it into the mains it automatically switches to mains power.

There are several different settings on the base unit, you can have sound only which deactivates the sensor (good for when the baby is older) or movement and sound with or without tic (the tic option means that the unit tics every time it detects movement). There is also a light which flashes green every time there is a movement which turns red if it doesn't feel movements for a few seconds and then flashes red when the alarm goes off after 20 seconds of no movement. The parent unit has a volume control and also has light sensors depicting sounds. The sound quality isn't brilliant, a little bit fuzzy and annoying but it's not digital so I'd expect this.

The only problem with this is that very occasionally the alarm will go off if the baby has moved far from the sensor (baby doesn't have to be directly above). Obviously you have to remember to turn it off when you pick the baby up!

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A great piece of mind for all parents!

After looking at so many reviews and options of baby monitors we opted for the Angelcare baby monitor because it has the sensor pad that goes under the baby's mattress, if your baby doesn't move or breath for 20 seconds the alarm sounds. You just have to always remember to turn the monitor off when picking up the baby as the alarm will sound.

(The amount of times we would get downstairs and then after 20 seconds we would hear the alarm and have to run upstairs to turn it off)

As first time parents this was something that put our minds at rest through the night as we knew if anything was to go wrong we would be alerted and we would be able to get straight to the nursery and have time to do the necessary if the worst was to happen.

It has a unit that stays in the baby's room which the sensor pad is connected to and a unit that stays with you the parents.

You can when the baby gets older take the sensor pad out and just use it as a normal sound monitor, we did this around 9 months as our son liked to move around his cot in the night and would move away from the sensor and the alarm would sound.

We only ever had 2 occasions where the alarm sounded and this was due to our son being to far away from the sensor pad as he had moved down the cot. All the other times were because we forgot to turn it off as I said above!

Our son was up in bed each night at 7pm from 6 weeks and I know that having the reassurance that we would know if there was ever a problem spurred this on.

We used a square piece of hard cardboard to stand the sensor pad on under the mattress of the moses basket, as the sensor needs to be flat and unable to move around.

I highly would recommend this to all parents as knowing that you will hear an alarm if anything is wrong just gives that extra peace of mind.

Our parents also loved the monitor as they were extra nervous being grandparents, so felt at ease knowing the alarm was there!